Formal Mayoral Decision confirms TfL fares frozen until 2020

Average household will save around £200 from the Mayor’s fares freeze over the next four years.

The Mayor calls on the Government to follow his lead and freeze fares on London’s suburban rail services

Around four million journeys a day across London will benefit from TfL fares being frozen, the Mayor Sadiq Khan confirmed today, as he officially published the 2017 TfL fares package.

The freeze in TfL fares for the next four years means that everyone buying a bus or tram ticket in London will not pay a penny more next year than they did in 2016. Pay as you go (PAYG) journeys on the Tube, DLR, Emirates Airline and rail services where TfL fares apply will be frozen. Hire and access on Santander Cycles will also be frozen to encourage even more people to try cycling to get around London.

Every year, before any decisions on fares are implemented, there has to be a formal ‘Mayoral decision’ that the Mayor signs and publishes on the GLA website.

The freeze will put £40m back into the pockets of Londoners next year and encourage more people to use London’s extensive public transport network. Over the four years, an average household will save around £200.

The freeze in TfL fares officially announced today follows successive years of fares increases under the previous Mayor. The Mayor is scrapping a planned 17 per cent hike in TfL fares after they went up 42 per cent since 2008. Londoners now pay some of the most expensive fares in Europe.

Examples include:

A peak pay as you go Tube fare from Morden to London Bridge (Zone 1-4) increased from £3.60 in 2012 to £3.90 in 2016 - up 8.3 per cent. For the next four years, the fare will remain at £3.90.

A peak pay as you go tube fare within Zone One increased from £2.00 in 2012 to £2.40 in 2016 – up 20 per cent. For the next four years, the fare will remain at £2.40

An adult 7-day bus and tram pass increased from £18.80 in 2012 to £21.20 in 2016 – up almost 13 per cent. For the next four years, the pass will remain at £21.20

The 2017 fares package also follows the successful introduction of the new ‘Hopper’ fare in September which has meant an end to having to pay two fares when changing bus routes within an hour. Already in just over two months, more than 10 million journeys have been made using the Hopper fare.

The Mayor is also freezing all TfL travel concessions, ensuring that children, those over 60, veterans, apprentices and those on Job Seeker’s Allowance continue to benefit from free or discounted travel.

Sadiq Khan, Mayor of London, said:

“After years of huge fare increases for London passengers, I’m delighted to be formally announcing our plans to freeze TfL fares across London’s transport network. Before taking office I was determined to ensure we took significant action to make public transport more affordable and we’ve already taken major steps through the introduction of the ‘Hopper’ ticket that in just two months has saved Londoners money on over 10 million bus journeys.

“Our TfL fares freeze will save an average household £200 over the next four years, putting money back into people’s pockets and playing an important role encouraging more Londoners onto public transport.

“I’m now demanding that the Government follows my lead and freezes fares on London’s suburban rail routes, where passengers have been hit by unacceptable delays, cancellations and overcrowding. It’s simply not right that London’s rail passengers face another fares hikes caused by the Government next year - the onus is on the Government to ensure every passenger in London gets the fares freeze they deserve.”

James MacColl, Head of Campaigns at Campaign for Better Transport, said:

"We support the Mayor's commitment to keeping fares affordable in London. This is an example of the power that he, working with Transport for London, has to represent the interests of passengers. The Government should learn from this by promoting devolution of responsibility for suburban rail services, there and elsewhere".

London’s Transport Commissioner, Mike Brown MVO, said: “Freezing fares help make our network more affordable for Londoners. Our efficiency programme allows us to deliver this while still providing the transport services London needs and also continuing to invest for future demand and growth."

As previously confirmed, the Mayor has the power to set fares on TfL services only. Travelcards, and the associated daily and weekly caps, are set by the Government in agreement with the private train operating companies (TOCs), which are permitted to increase their regulated fares in line with RPI inflation.

The TOCs have decided to raise their fares in line with this, with the increases in January reflecting the RPI level from July this year, which was 1.9 per cent, or in some cases higher, as there is also flexibility to increase fares by 10p per journey. The TOCs are also responsible for setting pay as you go fares on their own services and are due to confirm these later this month.

If TfL assumes responsibility for more suburban rail services as the Mayor is campaigning for, fares on these services would also be covered by the fares freeze. The Mayor continues to call on the Government to follow his lead and freeze fares across London’s suburban rail services.

The DfT’s timetable for existing franchises means that, under the Mayor’s plan, southeast London suburban services could be transferred to the Mayor when the current franchise ends in 2018, followed by southwest London suburban services in 2020 once capacity works at Waterloo are complete. Suburban services running to London Bridge and Victoria serving south central London, and to Moorgate serving parts of north London, would transfer when that current franchise ends in September 2021.

Fares will also be frozen on c2c services from Grays to Fenchurch Street and on Chiltern Railways from Amersham to Marylebone and West Ruislip to Marylebone as these fares are set by TfL.